Argentina opens door to U.S. vaccine donations with legal tweak

Argentina will tweak legislation to help the country receive U.S. donations of COVID-19 vaccinations, senior officials said on Friday, a move that could also help unlock deals that have proved tricky with drugmakers like Pfizer.

A decree signed today by President Alberto Fernández will soften legal clauses around negligence, remove a reference to "fraudulent maneuvers" - and create a fund to compensate people harmed by a vaccine.

Pfizer would, in turn, relinquish any claims on sovereign assets such as Central Bank reserves, embassy buildings and military bases as collateral against lawsuits. Only claims on some natural resources royalties would be allowed.

The prior language had hampered negotiations with vaccine firms, and the changes could help Argentina step up its vaccine program as it faces cases and deaths among the highest in the world per capita.

Some 53% of Argentine adults have received a first dose - but only 13%, both doses.

The United States recently announced donations of Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson vaccines to Peru and Colombia.

Argentina, currently facing a second wave of COVID-19, has recorded some 4.5 million cases of the virus and 95,382 deaths. Daily deaths have jumped from 126 in March, to 540 in June.

At: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/argentina-opens-door-us-vaccine-donations-with-legal-tweak-2021-07-02/

Argentine Health Minister Carla Vizzotti and Presidential Legal Secretary Vilma Ibarra respond to questions during today's press conference in which a decree was announced to create the legal exemptions needed to allow the import of of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.

Disputes stemming from Pfizer's claims on sovereign assets as collateral - as reported by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism in April - had hampered Pfizer's access to the Argentine market of 63 million potential doses.

The country's vaccine program (21.6 million administered thus far) has largely relied on Russia's Sputnik V, China's Sinopharm, and AstraZeneca's Covishield.